Patent GB-658917-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to agricultural machines
IPC: A01D87/02
Filed: 1949-07-04
Abstract: 658,917. Endless conveyers. CHESHIRE, SHROPSHIRE & NORTH WALES FARMERS SUPPLY ASSOCIATION, Ltd., VICKERS, E., and WELTON, C. F. July 4, 1949, No. 17665. [Class 78 (i)] In a portable endless conveyer for loading crops on to a waggon behind which the conveyer is towed, the endless band is provided with spaced cross-members furnished with tines and is supported at each end by rotary members mounted on transverse horizontal shafts, and there is provided a pick-up reel adjacent the lower end of the conveyer rotating on a horizontal transverse axis on the conveyer and provided with retractable tines, a slotted baffle embracing the lower part of the reel and mechanism for maintaining the tines extended through the baffle slots during a predetermined arc of the reel's rotation when the tines are feeding crops on to the conveyer tines, and retracting the tines after passing the point of transfer of the crops to the conveyer tines. The conveyer 13 comprises a pair of endless chains supporting a plurality of crossmembers 36, which are provided with tines 37, the tines on each cross-member being staggered with respect to the tines on the adjacent cross - members. The chains are adjustably supported in a frame, supported on wheels 8 and casters 9, by means of idler sprockets 17 and 18, the shafts of which, in addition to the shafts of the end sprockets 14 and 23 are mounted each in bearing members which can be adjustably bolted to the frame. The conveyer is driven from the wheels 8 through a sprocket chain 30 and a pair of driving sprockets 26 on a shaft 27 also mounted in an adjustable bearing member. The upper run 25 is enclosed in a casing consisting of a floor 57, walls 59 and top 60, the top being of wire mesh. The floor 57 is discontinued at the driving sprockets 26 to allow material to fall through the conveyer as it discharges into a waggon 11 by which the conveyer is towed. The pick-up reel 34 is mounted on a shaft 39 which is mounted in adjustable bearing members 40 on the conveyer frame and is driven by an endless chain 42 passed round a sprocket 14a on the shaft 15 of the sprocket 14 and round a jockey sprocket 43 adjustably mounted on the conveyer frame so that the outside of the chain engages a sprocket 41 on the shaft 39. The tines 33 on the pick-up reel are formed by the straightened ends of coil springs 47, Fig. 4, to form pairs, the coil-springs being secured by bolts 49 passing through loops 48 formed in the springs to L-shaped rods 45. These rods 45 are pivotally mounted on the rim 61 of discs 44 which are fabricated and not cast. Cam followers 54 Figs. 3, 4, co-operate with fixed cams 53 to cause the rods 45 to be positioned such that the tines 33 extend through slots formed between baffle members 50 during the lower part of their movement. When the followers 54 leave the ends 55 of the cams, the weight of the material pivots the tines so that on further rotation they are withdrawn axially. Stops 56 limit the pivotal movement of the followers 54. The tines re-enter the slots between the members 50 where these are joined to a crossmember 6, and where they are tapered, so as to guide a bent tine correctly into its slot.